The 8th

Screenings

June 11, 2020–June 20, 2020
(All day) /
Hrwfilmfestivalstream.org
New York digital edition
Film available to stream across the US from June 11-20
Take Part
June 19, 2020
7:00 PM /
Live Q&A
New York digital edition
Live Q&A on Friday June 19, 7:00 PM EDT w/ filmmaker Aideen Kane, HRW's Americas Researcher for Women's Rights Ximena Casas & special guests. Moderated by HRW's senior legal advisor Aisling Reidy.
QA Session with the Filmmaker
Take Part
Thank you to everyone who joined our digital film festival screening + live Q&A on June 19.
You can still watch the film until midnight ET on June 20, and view the recording of the Q&A here on our Facebook page with filmmaker Aideen Kane, HRW’s Americas Researcher for Women's Rights Ximena Casas, and film participants Ailbhe Smyth & Andrea Horan. Moderated by HRW’s senior legal advisor Aisling Reidy.
 

Film description: Capturing a crucial moment for women's rights, The 8th tells the incredible story of how Ireland overturned one of the world's most restrictive laws on abortion. Led by the fiercely passionate Ailbhe Smyth, Ireland's pro-choice movement must radically shift tactics to carry a traditionally conservative electorate over the line. Their efforts are particularly complex in the context of Ireland's strong religious roots and historical mistreatment of women and children. Essential viewing in an era of global rollbacks on women's bodily autonomy rights, this extraordinary film delivers a lesson in the power of grassroots activism and amplifies the voices of women across ages and backgrounds who refuse to stand down.

"It's actually about more than what you're voting on -- while we're voting on reproductive health care, it's also about the value we're giving women in Irish society, saying we do value them and we do trust them."

Andrea Horan, The 8th

Filmmaker(s): 
Aideen Kane, Maeve O'Boyle and Lucy Kennedy
Country of Production: 
Ireland
Year: 
2020
94m
Language(s): 
English
Genre: 
Documentary
Filmmaker Bio(s): 
Aideen Kane
Director/Producer

Aideen Kane is the VP of Production at Fork Films. She is currently a producer on Women in Blue and Inequality (WT), feature documentaries for release in early 2021. Previous credits include Emmy-winning and nominated, feature-length and television documentaries, including: The Armor of Light (dirs. Abigail Disney & Kathleen Hughes), The Trials of Spring (dir. Gini Reticker), The Awful Truth (dir. Michael Moore), Face to Face: The Schappell Twins (dir. Ellen Weissbrod), and Voices of the Children (dir. Zuzana Justman). In Ireland she produced several award winning documentaries and documentary series for public television and is a producer on the international theatrical hit Alone it Stands.

Lucy Kennedy
Director/Producer

Lucy Kennedy is a journalist and documentary filmmaker. She directed four episodes of the Netflix investigative documentary series Rotten including Lawyers, Guns & Honey and The Avocado Wars. She was the commissioning producer for three years of the Emmy-award-winning investigative series, Fault Lines on Al Jazeera. Over that period she directed and commissioned for the series; directing credits include Death on the Bakken Shale, One Day in Charkh and American Sheriff. Other work includes Explorer (National Geographic), Frontline (PBS), Need to Know & Wide Angle (WNET) & Prime Time (RTE). She is a graduate of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

Maeve O'Boyle
Director/Producer

Maeve O’Boyle is an Emmy-award winning editor and producer. She edited The Education of Mohammad Hussein (HBO), which was shortlisted for an Academy Award. She co-produced and edited the Emmy-award-winning and 2014 IRE Award winning, Firestone and the Warlord (PBS). She also edited and co-produced Growing Up Trans (PBS), which won a DuPont Columbia award and co-wrote and edited Do I Sound Gay?, which premiered at TIFF and was awarded the runner up for People’s Choice Award. Other work includes Left of the Dial (HBO), Heat (PBS), 112 Weddings (HBO & BBC) and The Kids Grow Up (HBO), which premiered at IDFA and Full Frame and was awarded a special Jury prize at AFI Docs. She is currently co-directing and editing a feature documentary on the folk singer Joan Baez.

Film Website: 
The 8th Film Website
To learn more on this topic visit HRW.org